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After a number of years working with a caseload of 20 families in a rural community, I began to notice a trend: the lack of fathers present in the homes during my work. I began to question what our district could do to encourage the involvement of more fathers. After pondering this question, all the while doing little to nothing about the issue, I received an e-mail from our Parents as Teachers state leader. The e-mail was sent to all Illinois programs stating that the national center was looking to partner with a local program for a fatherhood initiative project. I jumped on the chance to…
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The Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) team consists of researchers, curriculum developers, and social service delivery professionals who were funded to research and oversee the development of community-based programs that provide relationship education to married parents. This Toolkit was developed by the SHM team to guide emerging SHM programs as they developed and implemented various aspects of the program design and research agenda — with the goal of helping program operators develop a strong, successful program. Our goal in providing this document for general use is that managers and…
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Low-skilled men, especially minorities, typically work at low levels and provide little support for their children. Conservatives blame this on government willingness to support families, which frees the fathers from responsibility, while liberals say that men are denied work by racial bias or the economy--either a lack of jobs or low wages, which depress the incentive to work. The evidence for all these theories is weak. Thus, changing program benefits or incentives is unlikely to solve the men's work problem. More promising is the idea of linking assistance with administrative requirements…
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This is a partial listing of curricula that have been used as part of fatherhood programs in the United States. The compendium was compiled for the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) in August 2011 under a contract with the United States Department of Health and Human Services/Administration for Children and Families/Office of Family Assistance. The compendium is for information purposes only; none of the listed curricula are endorsed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. More information on availability of curricula and facilitator training can be obtained…
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New York launched a pilot employment program to help parents behind in their child support in four communities between 2006 and 2009. The program was part of the state's Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative. Our evaluation found that the program's combination of employment assistance, case management, and other support services substantially increased the earnings and child support payments of disadvantaged parents who were not meeting their child support obligations.
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Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) aims to promote preschoolers' school readiness by supporting parents in providing instruction in the home. The program model is designed for parents who lack confidence in their ability to prepare their children for school, including parents with past negative school experiences or limited financial resources. The HIPPY program model offers weekly activities for 30 weeks of the year, alternating between home visits and group meetings (two one-on-one home visits per month and two group meetings per month). HIPPY sites are encouraged…
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In honor of Father's Day, the Child Support Report offered three personal essays on fatherhood from leaders in the field, along with several perspectives on the child support program from state child support directors and researchers. (Author abstract modified)
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This report discusses conclusions from a two-day meeting of representatives of local, State, and national agencies that focused on the potential benefits and challenges of interagency collaboration between relationship education and pregnancy prevention practitioners. It summarizes key themes from the meeting and strategic actions related to relationship education and teen pregnancy prevention that were highlighted in the meeting. The recommended actions include: launch pilot projects and projects to test promising practices and assess the effectiveness of blended strategies; include youth…
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These resources are a snapshot of web-based materials available as of May, 2011; including field-shaping research and information sites, practical tools, and programmatic guidance for the important work of responsible fatherhood. (Author abstract)
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This poster presents the results from the second collection of Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) review data for approved measures for the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood grantees.
